Quick Thoughts on a Road Trip West: Up High, Down Below

Traveling Glacier Park's Going to the Sun Road makes one feel on top of the earth. Walking among Yellowstone Park's geothermal features makes one feel uncomfortably close to earth's nethermost regions. Either place, one is may be forgiven for feeling small and powerless in the face of overwhelming geological forces. One may also be expected, no matter what his or her religious convictions, to feel the force of the Psalmist's question: "What is humanity that you–God–should pay any attention at all to us?"

Am I wrong in thinking Yellowstone Park is like no place else on earth? I don't care; I like thinking that. After a day mostly spent exploring thermal pools and geysers and the like we visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It took our breath away in a way that perhaps only the other Grand Canyon might do. On our drive back to our room we saw bison and elk and one pronghorn grazing in vast valleys cut by glaciers and rivers, almost the way nature meant them to feed. Our planet is writ large in Yellowstone, and complex, and vulnerable, too. Awe strikes unawares, and even massive buildings such as the Old Faithful Inn cannot compete.

What's been the most impressive and moving site or experience on this Road Trip West? About that I have to think much harder than I have energy to think at the end of our last full day of sight-seeing. (We will perhaps drive by the Tetons on our way east tomorrow, but do not have time to explore them...everyone has to head home eventually.) A summary post will no doubt follow as I process and feel it all. Meantime, thanks for coming along for this ride.